ECLC was delighted to welcome over 70 partners, supporters, volunteers, guests and to its 48th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 29 November, 3pm at Manningham Civic Centre.

ECLC officially unveiled its 2022 Annual Report, “Moments that Matter”, a key theme that resonated throughout the meeting hosted by Chairperson, Janet Matton AM. The Centre warmly thanked Jose Abalo for almost 12 years of service on the ECLC Board and reported almost breakeven financials.

CEO, Michael Smith acknowledged the Centre’s Aboriginal partnerships and reiterated the Centre’s commitment to  being active and strong allies to our First Nation’s communities.

Michael also shared some of the key milestones for the Centre including great work in the prevention space; the You, Me and MP’s toolkit, Hidden Voices project and the expansion of the Mabels program to Mildura etc.

The  16 Days of Activism  was highlighted as was ECLC’s ongoing advocacy around the need for funding to be able to provide better support at the Specialist Family Violence Courts.

The My Generation Intergenerational Art Project aimed at challenging ageism was highlighted  with a trailer of the documentary ‘Art is for Everyone’ screened.

ECLC’s recent Anti-racism project, Amplifying Community Voices in the East was also presented. Guests were privileged to hear from Anti-Racism Advocate Eva Lam about the moments that mattered for her in the project together with a screening of the animated video, ‘Voices of Change – Action Against Racism’.

A team of four staff presented a client story detailing a community member’s legal support journey, highlighting the important collaborative approach taken by ECLC’s intake workers, community lawyers and client advocate

The crème de la crème was hearing first hand from Guest Speaker, Maria Dimopoulos AM about her own experiences that have shaped her life and the moments the matter.

The AGM made its debut on Facebook live, allowing guests to attend from afar. We are pleased that we had over 35 registered attendees and the live screened vid has already been viewed over 100 times.

If you missed out, you can watch the video here. A digital copy of the 2022 Annual Report, ‘Moments that Matter’ is also available here. An official AGM 2022 video will be available soon.

Special thanks to Manningham Councillor & ECLC volunteer Anna Chen, Whitehorse Cr Amanda McNeill, Chris Mathieson, EDVOS CEO, Elly Taylor, Women’s Health East CEO, and all our other guests for joining the celebration in person. Thanks also to the ECLC Board  Christine Cowin, Luong Ta, Dr Guy Masters, Katherine Dowson, Tabitha Lovett, Elke Smirl and Ali Besiroglu for your continued dedication and guidance.